Obituary of Cornelia van Rossen

Cornelia van Rossen (nee van de Velde) of Mt. Arlington, NJ passed away on Wednesday, December 30, 2020 at Morris View Healthcare Center after complications from hip surgery. She was born January 31, 1926 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands and was 94 years old. Cornelia was the oldest of four children born to Jan van de Velde and Luisa de Man and the last survivor among her brothers Leen and Herman and sister Elizabeth "Bep". Cornelia was married to Cornelius Johannes van Rossen who passed away on March 25th, 1998. They had 2 children Cornelius Johannes van Rossen Jr. and Mark Cornelius van Rossen. She is survived by her son Mark, his wife Marie Vitalo and their sons Johannes, Cristian and Stefen. She is also survived by 6 nieces and nephews (Loes, Robert, Ellen, Monique, Leen and Suzanne) and pre-deceased by a nephew Joop van der Pligt all residing or having resided in the Netherlands and by the wives of her brothers, Janny and Netty. She is also survived by a nephew Edward Seglias and niece Margot Seglias Mettler and their spouses and children from Pennsylvania, along with her great nieces Isabella and Tatiana Vitalo of Flemington, NJ. Cornelia lived a full life with kindness, grace and dignity. She grew up in Nazi occupied Netherlands and had stories of great tribulations and triumphs during WWII. She suffered through starvation and survived being shot at by a German soldier whilst raising the Dutch flag in her neighborhood of Ijsselmonde. Her community collectively helped to save the life of a downed British airman by hiding him from the Nazis and releasing him to agents of the Dutch Underground. She met and married Cornelius in 1949. Due to the shortage of employment after the war they emigrated from the Netherlands and moved to New York City in 1952. Later they moved to Lodi, New Jersey where they lived for 17 years. In 1974 they moved to South Carolina and spent most of their years in Georgetown along the Black River. In 2008, her son Mark purchased a mother/daughter home in Mount Arlington, NJ where she lived the remainder of her life in the company of Mark, Marie and her 3 grandchildren. Cornelia was an accomplished singer in the Netherlands where she studied opera and sang for a "Big Band". She also sang opera for the Florence South Carolina Symphony. Her other loves were painting and needlepoint many of which she gave to friends and are also on display in her house in Mount Arlington. Cornelia's Life Celebration Services will include a Memorial Service in Holland where ashes along with her husband's and oldest son's will be scattered in the waters of Rotterdam harbor. For memorial donations, please consider a donation in her memory to Save the Children – Humanitarian Aid for Children www.savethechildren.org